


Just Checking: Audrey, Nathan and Duke

by serendipityxxi



Series: Just Checking [7]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M, Hot Chocolate With Baileys, M/M, Multi, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:42:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8336911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serendipityxxi/pseuds/serendipityxxi
Summary: 6 times one of our OT3 had to check just to make sure one of the others is okay post the Troubles and one time they didn't have to. The one time they didn't have to.





	

Audrey Parker wakes with her heart in her throat, breath coming in harsh gasps, blinking hard to clear the fading images of Duke and Nathan sprawled at her feet. She can still feel the aether pouring out of their staring, dead eyes into her hands. She scrambles to sit up. To escape the dream. She wills the sleep from her eyes, the sluggishness from her limbs, intent on going to find Duke and Nathan but her hand lands on a warm shoulder and she realizes they’re there. The terror in her throat turns to tears because they are there, asleep on either side of her, alive and breathing and safe and whole.

The Troubles are over, she tells herself again, letting her eyes track over Duke who is sprawled on his stomach, one arm hanging over the edge of the bed, curls in his face. His back rises and falls in a steady rhythm despite how she must’ve shaken the bed a moment ago and she’s grateful he’s still asleep. She looks over Nathan, his arm thrown up over his head on the pillow, mouth open as he breathes. He’s fine too. He’s _fine_. She presses her hand over her pounding heart and takes in a deep shuddery breath.

Beside her Duke lurches awake. Surges up so quick that Audrey has to grab his arm to keep him from falling out of the bed. “Duke,” she calls to no avail. He’s panting, sucking in air in great lungfuls, then his hands are frantically feeling their way down Audrey’s arms, up her neck, he lays one over her heart and stares at her like he’s seeing a ghost and then he looks down at Nathan and a sob works its way out of his throat.

“Duke?” Audrey says, softer, more urgent. She gets her hands on his cheeks and touches her forehead to his.

“It’s okay,” he whispers, breath puffing against her lips. “I’m fine,” he says, though his breathing is jagged and there’s cold sweat beading on his skin.

Audrey pulls him off the bed. “Come on, I need a shot of something to calm my nerves,” she says and she means it as distraction but she can see when Duke registers she was already sitting up in bed.

 

They pad to the kitchen of the old yellow house in bare feet, Audrey in pajamas, Duke in just his boxers. Duke pulls out the pan for heating the cocoa and Audrey retrieves the milk from the fridge. The cold helps to make her feel further away from the dream, even as it raises goosebumps on her arms.

 She stands in the doorway for a long minute until Duke’s warm hands come down on her shoulders.

 “You okay?” he husks out, his fingers rubbing away the goosebumps.

 Audrey nods but lets her head drop back to rest against his chest and lets her tired eyes close for a second.

 “You?” she asks.

 Duke shrugs and she feels the motion. He kisses her temple and turns to the stove, pouring the milk into the pan.

 Audrey sits on the counter and drums her heels slowly against the cabinet, eyes following Duke as he moves around getting out mugs, retrieving the bailey’s. Even as he works Duke glances regularly in her direction. 

He’s just turned off the stove when they hear the shout from the bedroom.

 

They pound down the hallway and shove past the door to find Nathan in a heap of blankets on the floor looking lost. His blue eyes are wide and unseeing, his face flushed with panic, hair disheveled and sticking up like a little boy’s. Duke and Audrey scramble down, kneeling beside him in the tangle of bedding, her hands on Nathan’s shoulders, Duke’s hands on his face.

 “Nathan,” Duke calls firmly and Nathan turns to him, makes a choking noise and blinks, hard. Then he lunges into Duke, wraps his arms around him, holds on like he’s drowning. After a second Nathan gets an arm free and pulls Audrey into the hug, practically into his lap and the three of them sit there, rocking and holding on for long, long moments. Nathan can feel them Audrey knows, can feel her hands on his face and her weight pressed all along his torso, even the soft cotton of her tanktop, not just her arm. She knows Nathan can feel Duke’s hands stroking up and down his back and the warmth of his breath against his ear as he murmurs quietly to him. And she’s so glad, so so glad because it’s the touches that ground her after a bad night like this, feeling her boys’ hands and hearts. She brings her forehead to rest against their temples, holds them there, sifts her fingers through their hair and they hold onto her too, such strong hands holding onto her so carefully.

They sit on the floor and cling to each other, driving back their demons with simple, powerful words.

_“We’re okay.”_

_“The Troubles are over.”_

_“We survived.”_

_“We’re still here. Not going anywhere.”_

_“We’re safe.”_

_“We made it._

The words fall from their lips until it doesn’t matter who is saying them. When they tumble into bed later they say the words through touches and kisses and breathy sighs. It’s over. They survived. They’re okay.  They’re safe. They’re not going anywhere.

  
They made it.


End file.
